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Toxic souvenirs
Will the whole truth about depleted uranium ammunition ever come out? It depends on who’s looking, discovers Dinyar Godrej.

DU: From waste to weapon a visual guide.

Don't look, don't find
Can Iraqi doctors break through the wall of indifference? Doug Weir reports.

'We were expendable'
US Army veteran Herbert Reed’s blistering testimony.

Depleted Uranium – the facts
The facts on depleted uranium

Who's the real criminal?
John LaForge squares up to the largest DU munitions manufacturer in the US.

Depleted uranium – Action
Including Building the ban with Belgian activists and DU and the law.

‘Well, you don’t have the torn-off limbs for a start.’ I’d asked a campaigner why depleted uranium hadn’t achieved the same kind of public presence as the anti-landmines campaign and this was part of her reply. She was right, of course.

It was easier to make the case against landmines as indiscriminate weapons - they were blowing up all over the place and maiming civilians. No-one could deny their horrific impact. With the remnants of depleted uranium weapons it’s often a much slower story of toxic and/or radioactive poisoning, the cause and effect less easy to demonstrate without recourse to technical complexities. And then there are the unknowns. Among them the biggie – that nobody fully knows what lies in store for future generations.

There are alarming signs from the ailments of people exposed to DU and from the bewildering disorders manifesting in some of their children. But they are chronically under-researched. Doctors don’t know how to explain them. The governments who have used these weapons and who claim they are safe don’t seem particularly bothered.

In March of this year two American soldiers active during the Gulf War of 1991 tested positive for DU contamination a full 15 years after their return from Iraq. Apart from a whole host of disabling symptoms, one of them was also separated from his wife who had suffered from burning semen syndrome since his return and had developed cervical cancer. Their Government has responded by assuring them they haven’t been exposed.

As for the civilians in countries where DU contamination persists, they rarely get tested and their suffering is ‘far away’ from us. It must be brought near.

Dinyar Godrej
New Internationalist Co-operative